Reorganization & Used Items in Japan...

Joe's senior manager recently just moved back to Seattle. Lucky for us he lived only a couple of floors above us, and since it's really difficult to get rid of items in Japan, we acquired a few new things. We have discovered that in general, people here like brand new and really nice things. They are extremely fashionable and appearance matters greatly. Therefore, for the most part, they all want the biggest, and best, and newest items on the market - whether its clothes, accessories, household items, food, cars... or whatever! So basically, there's no market for used items, and when someone wants to get rid of something here - it goes into the trash. Seriously! Occasionally, if it's a fairly new item and in descent condition you can find a recycle shop and try to sell it. For example, when we moved into our new apartment we had to get rid of one of our air conditioners. It was less than a year old, and we bought it brand new for about $1500... and we sold it to a recycle shop for $50. Enough said. But what's even more crazy is that for most of your items, you actually have to PAY someone to get rid of them. Like a couch - you can't exactly throw it onto the streets downtown... so you have to first of all find someone to come and dispose of it, and then secondly you have to pay them to do it. Ridiculous! So it actually makes more sense to give your items away to other expats who want them, rather than to deal with the hassle of trying to sell them for essentially nothing or paying someone to come and dispose of it. You would think that a person would be able to donate their nice items to a homeless shelter or similar organization, or a Goodwill type of establishment - but apparently that doesn't exist here. We're already dreading having to try and get rid of all of our furniture when we leave here.

Anyway, as I was originally saying, we acquired a few new items from Joe's coworker - including a couple furniture pieces and about 20 plants! I've been wanting plants for a while, but Joe didn't seem to think they were necessary since we're only here temporarily. So now I finally got my plants, including a beautiful little orchid plant, yay! ;)

Here is a before picture...


And after...

New buffet style piece on the wall, filled with Japanese knick-knacks, and little plants displayed on top. Not sure if I've shown a picture yet of our wall of pics...? Since we're not allowed to nail anything into the walls - Joe created this design and hung everything by string. Each picture is of us from a different place in the world. It's a daily reminder of why we're living here, and how much we've been able to see and do through this amazing opportunity to live abroad! :) And then you can see in the back corner that I used my old bookcase to hold a variety of plants.

New TV stand and plants. And yes, Elodie is laying on the floor watching a Baby Einstein DVD (she loves them!). The only downfall to this new arrangement is that we don't have a good place to hang our antique scroll anymore.

New bookshelf and plants. We have too many books to do anything cute with this unit. Oh well.

The longer we live here, the more we stuff we seem to accumulate - especially because of Elodie! We originally showed up in suitcases, bought the essentials, and decided to keep it to the bare minimum. But we continue to acquire more and more stuff, which makes it cute & cozy and more "homey," but will ultimately come back to haunt us when we finally move back to the U.S.

I ♥ Japan - Earthquake Video

A video about the earthquake in Japan. People from the Tohoku area express their thanks to all of the international aid that has helped them. It's an amazing video, please take the time to watch it.

Aloha Table

Hawaiian food in Japan?... YES please! Despite the lack of diversity in Japan, there certainly is quite a huge range of restaurant choices. Last week my girlfriends and I headed out to try a new Hawaiian restaurant called Aloha Table. The place is known for their malasada donuts, pancakes, and "loco" breakfast (bowl of rice, hamburger on top, covered in gravy, and topped with a fried egg). In addition to breakfast foods, you can order pretty much anything - rice bowls, curry, chicken/steak/fish grilled dishes, and a variety of appetizers, salads & pastas.

Lunch with the girls! I ordered the daily pasta special, which was spaghetti carbonara, and it was fantastic. But with a full page of pancakes on the menu to choose from, I knew I'd have to go back...

And I did! I took Joe back the following weekend to try the pancakes. Unfortunately we went at the peak of lunch hour, so we had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table. But it was well worth the wait!

YAY for finally finding a place in Nagoya that has yummy pancakes! woohoo! The only downfall is that they don't serve them with maple syrup. My mango pancakes were topped with a cream sauce as well as chunks of mango & mango sherbet; while Joe's chocolate pancakes were topped with whipped cream, ice cream, brownie pieces & chocolate sauce. But they were still good, so we really can't complain.

The Hawaiian coffee was good too. And I thought the mug was very cute... Make Your Mouth Dance! And I should also add that the malasada donuts were also fantastic!... fresh out of the fryer and they melt in your mouth.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our day started off with a Dean & Deluca cinnamon roll. We used to live less then a 10-minute walk away from this fabulous cafe & shop, but unfortunately now we have to take the subway to get there. For those of you who live in Nagoya, or have visited us, you know how amazing these rolls are! Best cinnamon rolls I've ever had! A perfect way to begin the day.

Put the roll in the microwave for a second to warm it up, and they are ooooh so good! If only every morning could start out this way. ;)

I love you cherry much! I forgot I bought this little Valentine's Day outfit for her. Always fun to discover new clothes that she hasn't worn yet, haha.

In the afternoon we headed over to a friend's house for a Valentine's Day party. Each person brought a sweet treat, so we snacked on goodies all afternoon - then everyone got to take a bag of the left over treats home for our hubbies. Very fun! And Joe appreciated all of the yummy goodies I brought home: cupcakes, Tim Tams, chocolate candies, cookies, cream puffs, etc!

For dinner we checked out a new Indian restaurant. Some friends in our building have been telling us to try this place for a while, so Valentine's Day was the perfect excuse to go there. As you all know, Indian cuisine is our favorite food in Japan - sooo many good Indian restaurants in Nagoya! And believe it or not, this place topped all of our favorites. YAY for another delicious Indian restaurant, and just down the street from our apartment! :)

Not that we needed any more sweets... but for dessert I made these amazing little brownie-oreo-cupcake bites! I recently purchased some individual silicone baking cups (since a regular-sized cupcake pan won't fit in our oven). So I whipped up some brownie mix, put a spoonful into the bottom of each cup, placed an oreo on top of that layer, and then topped it with a spoonful of more brownie mix. Sooo easy, just need to make some brownie batter & buy a package of oreos. YUM!

As I said on FB, Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to wear pink and eat sweets!... oh wait, that's every day of my life! Happy Valentine's Day!

Oni Matsuri (Demon Festival)

We headed over to the city of Toyohashi, about an hour and half drive from Nagoya, for the annual Oni Matsuri (Demon Festival). The festival was held at the Akumi-Kambe Shinmeisha Shrine. It has been carried on since around 940 in the Heian period.

The main event of this festival is a rivalry between Aka-oni (Red Demon) and Tengu (long-nosed goblin). The story performed comes from Japanese mythology where a destructive god appears and destroys the granaries. So the god of martial arts fights to straighten him out. The story has become a Shinto ritual festival, where people pray for a rich harvest and prosperity.

Aka-oni (the demon) walks zigzag throughout the performance, which symbolizes lightning. According to Japanese folk tales, lightning is caused by demons on the clouds. So the demon basically just walked zigzag up and down a path in middle of hundreds of people, occasionally stopping and posing by leaning back and looking up into the sky. He did this for about an hour (which was a little too long if you ask me!)

At the climax of the show, the red demon provokes battle with the goblin, but is ultimately defeated. He then escapes from the shrine area and runs around the town, scattering tankiri-ame (candy made from grain powder) and throwing white grain powder over the visitors to drive out evil. It is said that if you are showered with this powder or eat the candy, you will not get ill during the summer.

There was so much powder thrown that it actually looked like it was snowing! People were very anxious to get showered with the grain and receive the candy. You know how in the U.S. kids run into the street to get candy thrown during a parade? It was similar to that - except we're talking about hundreds of people, including mainly adults. People were running all over, jumping up and down... it was chaos!

As always, festivals come with yummy and unhealthy food! Numerous vendors everywhere selling everything from okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) and takoyaki (balls of fried octopus), to chocolate covered bananas and cotton candy! We indulged in fried chicken & sweet potato fries coated with sugar... YUM!

Glad we can add this to our list of things we've seen in Japan. It was definitely an interesting experience!

Sapucai

There are some new Boeing folks in town, so we met a new couple at Brazilian restaurant, Sapucai, and it was fantastic! And lucky for us, only a 10-minute walk from our house. The menu is full of traditional Brazilian food, like kebab skewers, & hearty stews full of beans, ham, bacon, sausage, and beef. You can order food off the menu, or else choose to take on the hearty buffet (which is what we did!). It's all you can eat salads, rice, curry, potatoes, & stews... and of course MEAT! I didn't realize that Brazilian food is so heavily dominated by meat. A waiter comes to your table every few minutes with freshly cooked meats, offering you a different meat to try every time he appears. We had chicken, sausage, beef, pork, bacon wrapped meats, steak, just to name a few. He'll continue bringing you more meat until you finally tell him to stop. And trust me, it was difficult to finally tell him to stop because it was all so good!

A singer/guitarist was just beginning to play live music when we left - so it would be fun to go back with a group of friends to hear him play and enjoy the yummy food!

5 Months!

Our growing girl has had quite a busy month. We spent the first half of it in Michigan with family. Then we traveled back to Japan, adjusted to the major time change, and have been getting back to our "normal" life and routine ever since. There has been a lot of change but she seems to have handled it really well. Thank goodness!

This month she finally accomplished being able to use her hands to grasp toys and bring them to her mouth. I've been somewhat worried that she hadn't accomplished this yet, but is finally starting to get more coordinated using her hands. Also, she rolled over from her tummy to her back! Way to go Elodie! Now we need to work on rolling over the other way.

Crochet Cutie

I think Elodie has more clothes than both Joe and I combined, haha. ;) She has certainly been spoiled by family and friends, especially over the holidays. Little girls are so much fun to dress up!

Sporting her new University of Michigan winter hat. She seriously has more UofM clothing than Joe, and that's saying A LOT!! She's also wearing my crochet sweater that I wore as a baby. Fits her perfectly right now and is so cute & cozy.

Love her new crochet headband and shoes from our friends here in Japan, so adorable! Thanks Joni and family! :) I love this picture of her, she's trying to wiggle out of her Bumbo seat while looking up and smiling at Daddy.

Thai Tom Yum Soup

I'm on a recipe kick right now, so started this week off with a bang: Tom Yum Soup!

While in Thailand last spring, we took a Thai cooking class. Through the class, we received a collection of herbs and spices along with directions for how to make Tom Yum Soup. The box has been sitting in our pantry for 11 months now... so I decided it was time to dig it out and give it a try.

Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult to make (since I already had all of the ingredients needed). The basic broth is made out of stock and fresh ingredients. I'm actually quite impressed with how it turned out! It was lite and fresh, and I would definitely recommend it. I also read that the soup has many health benefits due to its combination of herbs & spices. So not only does it taste good, but it's healthy too. :) So here's the recipe...


Ingredients:
1,200 ml (2 Pt.) chicken stock, or vegetable stock
2 dried red chillies
2 tbsp. chopped lemongrass
4 slices galangal 2.5cm (1 in.) pieces
6 kaffir lime leaves
4 spring onions white and green parts, chopped (I used a yellow onion)
2 tbsp. chopped fresh coriander leaves (I didn't have this)
1 tbsp. fish sauce (nampla) or soy sauce
2.5 cm (1 in.) piece lime or lemon peel (I used both)
2 tbsp. lime or lemon juice (I used both)
500 g. (1 lb) frozen prawns or chicken pieces or mushrooms defrosted
chopped spring onion and coriander leaves for garnish (I didn't do this)

Directions:
In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients, except the prawn/chicken/mushroom and lime juice. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes to blend the flavors. Strain and discard the solids. Return the liquid to the sauce pan, add the prawns/chicken/mushrooms and cook until heated through, about 1-2 minutes. (I cut up raw chicken into tiny pieces, and then cooked the chicken in the soup - about 5 minutes). Add lemon/lime juice then pour into soup tureen; garnish with the chopped spring onions and coriander and serve.

Next time I want to try adding some veggies to it, and maybe use prawns instead of chicken. I also want to make sure that I have coriander leaves and green onion, which is what the recipe calls for and I didn't have. I also read that adding coconut milk will make it more rich and creamy and add to the flavor.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon & Parmesan

One of my New Year's resolutions is to try new recipes, and well... cook more in general. I find that we constantly make the same meals every week: tacos, fajitas, salmon, BBQ chicken... all accompanies by some easy veggie and rice. Occasionally I'll make a couple Japanese dishes, such as okonomiyaki and yakisoba. But variety seems to be rare these days.

Thanks to Pinterest, I have found quite a few new recipes that I want to try. Some of them will be challenging, as finding the right ingredients will be difficult. But the goal is to try. ;)

So I decided to start simple with an extremely easy side-dish recipe: Chickpea Salad with Lemon & Parmesan. It turned out pretty good and is so easy that I thought I would share. Here's the ingredient list:

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. olive oil
a pinch of salt (more to taste)
1/4 cup loosely packed shredded parmigiano reggiano (unfortunately I couldn't find this in Japan, so just went with grated Parmesan cheese)

All you have to do is combine all ingredients in a bowl, and gently stir to mix. Serve immediately or chill until serving (I like it better cold).

It would probably be better with the correct cheese, but oh well. Was still good, and even got Joe's approval!